I've been riding since March and have about 5,000 miles on my '02 GS.
I'd like to think that one of the reasons I haven't crashed (yet) is a heightened sense of awareness around cars on the road. I am always slightly adjusting my speed so that there is always an "out" should one of those cars do something unexpected.
However, one unexpected consequence is that I am still paranoid when driving a car. I keep expecting other drivers to cut me off or pull into my lane...way more than I used to.
Is this normal?
Healthy paranoia.
Defensive driving. Always good to do.
When I started riding a bike, I stopped drinking (switched to ginger beer or root beer or tonic water) in any situation where I would be riding - no "one drink per hour", no "0.03% is fine" - I have no personal interest in being impaired while riding, and damn the legal definitions, any booze/beer results in measurable impairment and slowing of reaction times. Within a year or two I extended this policy to the truck/car as well. While I might be far more likely to survive a f%$k up in the truck, someone else might not. Designated driver, walk home, sleep there or don't drink.
I got 8000 miles of riding and I'm the same way too, especially with no health insurance.
"Expect the unexpected" and "be aware of your surroundings" is what my Dad taught me. I also still practice quick manuevers when I find a empty parking lot or street.
I do have to admit though, I do get a little cocky because I can fit between cars, but only when someone is driving slow in the carpool.
Oh yeah and being in a rush is never good....I've read so much on this board and even bought books on better riding techniques, that I feel it has definitely helped with my riding, and not starting out on a fast crotch rocket is a big help too. GS for life, or at least until I can get a SV650, lol.
+1 for healthy paranoia. never, ever, ever trust a signal. watch the side streets. expect red light runners - and if you see -anyone- on a cell phone, expect them to cause an accident. every time.
you're right, and still alive.
here's something to think about:
number of colors on a stoplight - 3
number of colors on your bike - 3 (maybe)
number of colors on your helmet - 3 (maybe, less is better)
number of colors, sounds, moving images, numbers, and even vibrations on a typical cellphone - 70,000
you, your motorcycle, your flashing rear brake light, your helmet light (i have one), your high beam flashing, your turnsignals, and your arm movements CANNOT COMPETE with a cellphone (or a cellphone with boobs for a ring picture) in a boob's hand. he'll cream you.
something else to think about. the next time you're sitting at a red light waiting- look at what is preventing those other cars from running over you. nothing. no gate, no pop-up 9/11 concrete barrier, no air bags- NOTHING but a light, 25+ feet up in the air. at that is at intersections. out on the road, there is even less.
ride safe, from another paranoid rider/driver.
No its not normal.
Normal is to drive offensively or abstractedly, driving a slushbox car or SUV and talk on cell phone while eating and barely monitoring the evolving scene out the windshield and not monitoring the other directions.
You are far better than normal. If you like driving, your version is the way to go.
I am the most cautious driver you'll ever meet. An important part of that is just being relaxed(hard when being in a car tenses you out to no end) and not being in a rush, meaning I don't try to catch the last second of a redlight, I don't try to change lanes in traffic just to move up 10 feet. The one thing that completely blows my mind, is when people are trying to pull out of a side street in the city where cars parked on both sides so they have absolutely no clue who's coming or not, the best option they can come up with is just to stomp on the gas and hope they make it out, especially when they're making the left hand turn. I have absolutely no problem making a turn I can see and looping around the block to come at it from another way, there's no point in taking chances.
I've never had a car, so I commuted by motorcycle for years, then I moved to the city and just started bicycling, and I had just gotten used to the fact that people in cars don't care about others that are smaller/less homicidal than they are, but I was pretty amazed when I started driving my wife's car on occasion to see that it's nothing against people on motorcycles or bicycles. People in cars hate EVERYBODY, and are willing to take blood if it'll get them where they're going 3 minutes faster. They do the same stupid things to people in cars, you just don't think as much of it when you're in a car someone one does something stupid because you didn't almost just die.
I am completely beyond the point of thinking something may happen and being prepared for it. If I ride assuming every single car around me would kill me if they're given the chance, and if I didn't ride that way I would get hit a number of times every day on the way to and from work. I don't go through any intersection thinking I have the right of way because I have a green light, I don't pass side streets without assuming someone's going to pull out. I don't assume that just because someone just stomped on their gas to wizz by 2 inches from my shoulder to pass me and swerve back infront of me that they're not just going to slam on their brakes to make a right hand turn. I don't assume that even though someone clearly knows I'm in the lane, because they had to change lanes to pass me, that they're going to bother waiting until they're past me to pull back into my lane. Thinking anyone on the road has the slightest bit of common sense is the worst idea I've ever heard.
I've love to move out of the city and back into a quiet suburban neighborhood, but I in no way want to deal with driving back and forth to work every day, and my main goal is to eventually be close enough to just walk to work, although pathetically you're not even safe walking anymore. I have people almost run me over while I'm in the cross walk with the right of way on a regular basis, and then get yelled at for being in their way. The whole "cars own the world" situation we're in right now seriously needs to be reconsidered.
sorry, double post
Completely agree with you. I'm the same way when I drive my car
Whaaat ... I mow everythign down with my truck ... if I haven't collected atleast 8-10 stop signs, 3-4 pedestrians and a couple trees at a minimum its a slow week. See ... I think I am on the bike, so I know I can go within 2 inches of a stop sign to my arms. When I do that ... booya, stop sign on the ground. That means free stop sign right ...
Cool.
Buddha.
Not unhelthy at all.
i found that when I started riding bikes, my driving has gotten MUCH better.
Quote from: The Buddha on November 06, 2009, 12:07:59 PM
booya, stop sign on the ground. That means free stop sign right ...
Not only does it mean free stop sign, it also mean you don't have to stop at that intersection anymore!
Quote from: tt_four on November 06, 2009, 01:13:28 PM
Quote from: The Buddha on November 06, 2009, 12:07:59 PM
booya, stop sign on the ground. That means free stop sign right ...
Not only does it mean free stop sign, it also mean you don't have to stop at that intersection anymore!
That doesn't make any difference, I just slow down to ~40 as I go through them anyway.
Yea I dont have to ... yea makes a big difference.
Cool.
Buddha.
Normal as a normal thing.
With over a million clicks of driving experience, I can read traffic pretty well. Traffic and other drivers. And when I'm driving and my wife is in the car, I'll point out a certain car on the road and tell her what it will do soon. And sure enough, within a short period of time the car will do what I predicted. And while it appears I am being psychic or using the bike riders 6th sense, I am actually picking up on the little nuances and behaviors of what drivers do in certain situations, based on my extensive experience on the road.
On a bike you Do NEED to scan the road ahead vigilantly. If you ride as unaware as car drivers drive, then you're likely to come off the bike.
From position within a lane, to positioned behind other cars, or cars next to you, you Need to be far more aware of what is going on. And because you are forced to pay attention for the safety of your own skin, your overall traffic sense improves. And you carry your Paranoia with you when you get behind the wheel.
And if you spend sufficiently large amounts of time on the bike, Yes, you do feel the urge to nod or otherwise acknowledge biked going the other way, when you're behind the wheel. :icon_mrgreen:
Michael
when your on a 400 pound two wheeler and your surrounded by 1000 pound 4 wheeled vehicles sometimes 'driven' by women, there is no such thing as paranoia.